Baker County has been awarded a $246,000 federal grant to update its Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

The plan, which includes information about parts of the county where wildfires pose a higher risk to home, was last revised in 2015, said Gary Timm, fire division manager for Baker County emergency management.

Timm said he applied for the grant in October 2022.

He and other local officials, including representatives from the county’s volunteer rural fire districts, the Forest Service and BLM, and the Oregon Department of Forestry, will coordinate to update the plan.

Timm said he also wants to hire a contractor to upgrade the plan’s maps and its design.

A key part of the plan is its list of wildland-urban interfaces — places where homes are in either a forest or a rangeland where the wildfire danger is relatively high.

There are 28 such areas in the county, encompassing about 503,000 acres and including approximately 2,600 homes, according to the current wildfire protection plan.

Since the plan was last revised, Baker County property owners have created three “Firewise Communities” — wildland-urban interfaces where residents work together to try to reduce the fire risk on their own properties and in the area in general.

The three such areas are around Spring Creek, along the base of the Elkhorn Mountains west of Baker City, in the East Eagle Creek and main Eagle Creek areas north of Richland, and in the Pine Valley area around Halfway.

Property owners in three other areas have expressed interest in starting a Firewise Community, Timm said — Bourne, north of Sumpter; Woodtick Village and Rattlesnake Estates on the north side of Unity Reservoir; and the Floodwater Flats cabins near Anthony Lakes.

Although the wildfire protection plan details the threats that fire poses in the county, Timm said another purpose is to outline work that has been done, such as forest thinning, to reduce the fire risk.

He said the revised plan will describe some of those projects, including along the Anthony Lakes Highway.

Timm said the plan will also highlight improvements in rural fire districts, such as upgrading equipment.

“There’s been a lot of great accomplishments out there,” he said.

Timm said the grant money won’t be available until later this year.

He expects the plan revision will take one to two years.

The current plan is available online at www.bakercounty.org/emergency/emgmt.html

This story first appeared in https://www.bakercityherald.com/